The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 6, 1932, Page 1

" ( | WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! Dail (Section of the Communist International ) Norker, Rinumict Party USA. Carry On the Struggle —< Make May 7 A Day of Struggle for the Freedom of the Scotts- boro Boys and Tom Mooney. aS Entered a Vol. IX, No. 108 second-class matter at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. ander the act of Marck 3, 1879 NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MAY. 6, 1932_ CITY ———s EDITION Price 3 Cents ALL OUT TOMORROW-INTERNATIONAL SCOTTSBORO DAY! Demonstrate on May 7th for the Freedom of the Scottsboro Boys! a Sd egal massacre of seven of the nine innocent Scottsboro Negro boys has been set for June 24. It is of the greatest importance for the Negro masses as well as the white workers to understand that all the reactionary forces, all the ene- mies of the working class, the whole coterie of imperialist agents, includ- ing the fascist Ku Klux Klan and A. F. of L. bureaucrats, the socialist party, the NAACP misleaders down to the renegades from Communism, the Trotzkyites and Lovestoneites, are not merely allowing the law to | “take its own course,” but are doing everything to tie the hands and blind the eyes of the Iicgro masses and the working ¢lass to prevent them from frustrating this murderous legal lynching of the innocent Scottsboro Negro boys. This is particularly true of the socialist party. In a recent article by Norman Thomas in the New Leader of April 2, the socialist leaders again show their hand as agents of the Alabama lynchers, Norman ‘Thomas writes: “The Communists’ tactics of exploiting labor struggles and examples of racial injustice for party purposes probably helps to explain the ac- tion of the Alabama Supreme Court in confirming the conviction of the Scottsboro defendants.” Mr. Thomas would have the workers and the Negro masses believe that the “poor” Alabama lynchers ‘were swerved from their “worthy” efforts to give a “fair and impartial” trial to the Scottsboro boys, that these murderers angered by the Communist tactics of coming to the aid of the persecuted and: oppressed Negro masses were forced to | the verdict of death. Mr. Thomas would have the masses believe that this is merely an isolated case of a miscarriage of “justice,” and that it is not part of a total system of persecution, oppression, terror and lynching against twelve million Negroes. In the name of sympathy for the nine boys, Mr. Thomas is ready to carry out a monstrous betrayal of the boys as well of the entire Negro people. What are these “terrible tactics” of the Communists? These tactics proceed from the fundamental understanding that the frame-up of the nine Scottsboro boys is part of the whole system of oppression of the Negro people, and not merely a case of “good intentions” but mis- taken “justice.” The Scotsboro boys are the victims of a conscious policy of lynching which proceeds from the oppression of the Negro peopie. ‘They are not merely nine boys, but nine Negro boys who are persecuted as members of the oppressed Ngro people. In view of the fact that we are dealing with the whole system of national oppression the struggle for the freedom of the nine boys could only be successful by involving the broad masses of Negroes and white toilers against this system which breeds lynching. It is absurd to think that those who are consciously carrying .out the lynch policy of the ruling class will surrender their nine victims except through the combined forces of the masses of the Negro people and white workers. The tactics of the Communists there- fore are the tactics of developing the broadest mass movement not only as the only guarantee of securing the freedom of th 9 boys from th clutches cf the legal lynchers, but also as a guarantee of struggle against the very iynch system of oppression which continually reproduces similar Scottsboro cases. The struggle for the freedom of the nine boys is the struggle against the oppression of the Negro masses. Because th Communists ralize this and act upon this understanding, they have brought upon themselves the slander and villification of all the agents of the impertalist lynchers. Whoever tries to eliminate the question of the emancipation of the N masses from the struggle for the boys is a scoundrelly traitor to the Negro masses. To limit the struggle for the freedom of the nine boys to the courts and to the mercies of the lynch courts is to deliver the boys to most certain death. To separate the struggle for the freedom ofthe nine boys from the struggle against the persecution and oppres- sion of the whole Negro people is not only to deliver the boys to dath bub to surrender the Negro masses to the mercies of the lynchers. Of course no honest worker would expect anything Ise from Mr. Thomas. Thomas’ latest statement is not an isolated and accidental expression, but a part of a whole fundamental policy of the betrayal of the entire working class. Just as he has consistently delivered up the interests of the working class to the capitalists, so he is doing now with the oppressed Negro people. Thus, Mr. Thomas is alarmed at the Com- munist tactics which take this struggle outside of the confines of the bourgeois courts and rouses all toilers to wage a fight against the whole system of lynching and oppression of the entire Negro people. Mr. Thomas along with the other betrayers of the working class and Negro masses wishes to conceal the real issues behind Scottsboro, to hid its character asa flagrant example of Negro national oppression. This indeed is in keeping with the whole character of the socialist party which, in both theory and practice, supports Jim Crowism, and passively ignores the existence of a Negro question in the Nnited States. Thus Mr. O'Neal one of the leading “theoreticians” of the socialist party in his pamphlet “The Next Emancipation,” on the Negro and so- cialism, which in reality is a pre-election program of the socialist party mm. the Negro question, rejects the Communist thesis that the Negro quéstion is a national question. According to him, it is a mere “labor question.” From this premise, Mr. O’Neal benevolently calls upon the Negro workers to support the socialist party in the coming elections and | forget about Jim Crowism, lynching, peonage, etc. This is a logical con- tinuation of the line expressed in the statement of Heywood Broun, former Congressional candidate of the socialist party, who declared that the South would not be ready to accept the enforcement of the consti- tutional guarantees of Negro rights for at least fifty years, and that to advocate these at the present time would require a civil war. Thus Mr. Broun supports th oppression and lynching of the Negro masses for the next fifty years. The Communist Party in organizing a mass movement around Scotts- boro, exposing the real issues, and the eager response to this movement by masses of Negro toilers in th South, shows conclusivly that the Negro masses will not wait fifty years but are ready to fight right now together with the white workers for the realization of equal rights, for the right of self-determination. It is also quite clear that in this struggle they must fight against the social fascists, against the Negro reformists and the whole gang of imperialist agents. It is this fact that Mr. Thomas and his imperialist masters fear. Hence the slander against the Communist Party and the attack on the mass defense movement it has organized. ‘The mass fight against the lynch verdicts has proven its effectiveness in many ways, notably severay times forcing the rulling class lynchers to postpone the date for the proposed electrocution of the Scottsboro boys. This mass defense movement must be built up into an even more powerful instrument against the ruling class and its murderous oppres- sion of the Negro masses. Saturday, May 7, must see a new outpouring of millions of workers into the streets in idignant protest against the lynch verdict, against the murderous suppression of the Negro masses, for equr] rights for the Negro people, for the right of self-determination for t/ >» Black Belt, In every part of the world on May 7, the toiling masses, together with all honest intellectuals, will raise anew the thunderous demand for the release of the nine innocent Scottsboro boys, for the release of Orphan Jones in Me~yland, of Willie Brown in Philadelphia, of Willie Peterson in Birmingham, and other framed-up Negro workers, for the release of Tom Mooney, with Berkman and all class war prisoners All out Saturday, May 7! Demonstrate against the lynch verdicts! Demonstrate against imperialist oppression of the Negro masses! Build Uo laf ae boce lea CALL FOR GIANT SCOTTSBORO DEMONSTRATIONS SAT. bie ORGANIZATIONS | | ® | White and Negro Toiling Masses Urged to MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., sent a letter to the Building which states that its charter h Green Expels 16 Unions for Backing Jobless Insurance (Special to the Daily Worker) sixteen unions and three thousand May 5.—William Green has Trades Council, representing ht hundred workers, as been ‘revoked for endorsing | the American Federation of Labor Rank and File Unemploy-| ment Insurance Committee and for participating in other U.S. GOVT AND BANKERS ARE RAISING FUNDS FOR | TSARIST WHITE GUARDS | American Ambassador to Pari: ton Banker Appeals to Busin to Paris and Washing- Men for Pour Into the Streets In Indignant Protest Against Murderous Lynch Verdicts In statements issued by a number of mass organizations | yesterday, the workers of greater New York are urged to pour | into the streets this Saturday, May 7, in a tremendous, mili- | tant demonstration against the Scottsboro lynch verdicts and united front activities. The unanimously voted to refuse on the rank and file to contin of L. leadership. Several local unions hav against Green’s splitting police to give up the charter and calls ment insurance and against the wage-cutting of the A. F. Building Trades Council has ue the struggle for wnemploy- e adopted protest resolutions | | y. A Rank and File Commit- Financial Aid to Tsarists Cooper, Washington Banker, Opposed Cash Bonus for War Veterans But Now Seeks Financial Aid for W hite Guard Officers “4 | for the unconditional release of the nine innocent Scottsboro FAKERS OUT TO HELP PUT OVER PAYCUT Local 49 Painters last night at its membership meeting voted unani-| mously against the action of the District Council giving full power of strike settement to Kelly, vice presi- dent of the Brotherhood. When | Council Delegate Frey was asked by | Brother Weinstock whether it was | true or not, when a vote of confidence | was given to Kelly last Saturday, | that Kelly took his hat and left with the following words, “Gentlemen, }from now on whenever negotiations are to be made wiih the employers, I will select my own committee of three, maybe business agents or others and do all negotiating for the or- ganization.” Frey replied that this is a “Com- munist Lie.” Then a motion was shall be recorded in the minutes. made that both question and answer shall be recorded in the minutes. (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) { boys, Tom Mooney, Edith Berkman and other class war prisoners. Satur- day is International Scottsboro day, and workers throughout the world will demonstrate for the release of the boys. In its statement the Trade Union Unity League calls “upon every trade | unionist to support the Scottsboro victims of class persecution and race hatred by coming to the demonstra- tion May 7, at 145th St. and Lenox Ave., in Harlem.” | The International Workers Order | points out in a statement that the Scottsboro case has developed great interest among the members of this organization and that the attempt of the Southern bosses to legally lynch the Scottsboro boys is an attack upon the whole working class of this coun- uty. The I.W.O. calls for mass sup- port of the demonstrations on Satur_ day. The ‘Industrial Needle Trades Workers Union calls upon all needle trades workers “members of the union as well as members of the A. F. of L. and unorganized workers” to support the mass fight to free the boys. A series of open air meetings has been organized in all the gar- ment centers, fur, dress, cloak, milli- nery and men’s clothing, to bring to the workers the significance of this case and to mobilize the largest pos- sible number of needle trades work- (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) striking orkers of the I. Miller held Wednesday night at Astoria Hall, the workers unanimously voted to strike for the following demands: 1. No, layoffs and ni discharges. 2. All work to be divided equally among the employes during the | slack season. 3. Recognition of the elected de- partment committees, chairmen and the general shop chairman. The | work ers to have the full right to meet outside the firm’s premises, 4. Prices on new styles to be timed and adjusted by the com- mittee. 5. The committee shal have the right to pass judgment on damaged | shoes. 6. 44-hour week—overtime with the permission of the shop com- SAN FRANCISCO, May 5. —Tom{ | Mooney yesterday sent the following,“ open letter to Governor James Rolph, NEW YORK.—At a meeting of the; Miller Shoe Workers Strike; to Mass Picket t Shop Today ee 7. In the event that the firm can employ anly part of the crewmfw employ only part of the crew at certain intervals, workers shall be called in to work, according to their next, with the advice and approval of the shop committee, 300 Workers Out The strike went into effect yester- day morning with over 300 workers answering immediately the strike call. The strike is under the leadership of the Shoe and Leather Workers In- dustrial Union, affiliated with the T.U. U0. Cc. A general strike meeting took place yesterday noon, I. or- |ganizer of the union, and J. Magli- cano, the Italian organizer, spoke at (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) tee of Action of militant groups in ten locals has been formed| | to carry on the struggle. | The degenerate M. Judd, lackey of Wall for. the.. Advancement. ..of - Colored} People—are thé idols of the hour of! the naval and -military colony of ‘Yankee imperialism in the islands. Headlines in the reptile press, from| the austere New York Times to the| gutter sheets like the Daily Mirror,) hail with glee this liberation of the murderers, whom they describe as) “honor slayrs.” In spite of all the vicious slandrs | about “protection of white woman-| hood” against the “Hawaiian rabble,”| the capitalist press makes no attempt) to conceal the real purpose of the} savage drive to establish lynch law in} Hawaii. The Washington Times of| May 2 “reminds” its readers that) Hawaii is not an insland paradise created for tourists, surf riders, pine- apple growers and hula dancers, “but/ a fort for the protection of this coun- try.” The Washington sheet cone| tinues: “The recent naval manouvers showed the importance of this great fort in guarding our west coast from aggression. Without it the states of California, Oregon and Washington would lie maked and exposed to raids of invasion by sea and air. A fort should be controlled by the Army or Navy. At present the fort is controlled by a groun of feeble or corrupt politicians. The Massie case has shown the kind of control they exert among the mixed races of / Hawail. And they have since had | the nerve to demand the recall of By By HARRY VW WICKS AMERICAN IMPERIALISM FREES THE HAWAIIAN LYNCHERS naval quartette that| by decree of the Hawaiian governor, Lawrence | Street imperialism. The | How Wall Street Street Hunger Government, | through its diplomatic agents in European countries, is organizing financial: aid for the vicious White Guard enemies of the Soviet | Union is clearly shown in a letter published in vesterday’s New York Times. The letter is from Wade H. Cooper, president of the Commercial Nationa! Bank of Washington, D. C., and is an the White Guards. jappeal to American business men to finance In his letter, Cooper admits receiving an appeal from the lynched Joseph Kahahawai is today scott free | American Ambassador in Paris to carry on the collection of funds for the Tsarist White Guards. He attempts to cover up the anti-Soviet nature of this financing of the White Guards by | pretending that the funds are ae be used for the “relief” of verdict of the jury, which defied the lynch |: ‘war-wounded Russian officers”. gang and repudiated the contemptible trickery of Clarence|C®°Per 1s an opponent of the pay] Darrow, is set aside. The Washington society leader, M Granville Fortescue; her son-in-law, Lieut. Thomas H. Massie, | and two navy enlisted men, Albert 0. Jones and E. J, Lord,|Paris, nor the American government comprise dthe murder band, and Darrow—a member of the|!s concerned with the increasing | legal staff of the National Association, ment of the cash bonus to American World War veterans. Neither Mr. Wade, the American Ambassador at ‘starvation and snd of twelve mil- | 45, 000 Shells Shipped from Bethlehem Plant | Lay-Offs Mount, qe Go Down As New War Orders Come In (By a Worker Correspondent) BETHLEHEM, Pa.—Shell is, aeroplane parts and other munitions are being produced in great quantity in the Beth- lehem Steel Plant here. An o; eight inch shells was just comp’ rder of 45,000 five, three and leted here, Three and five inch shells are being turned out regularly. On account of the lay-offs the@ production of these orders is carried | on with the most terrific speed-up. | There has been all kinds of auto- matic machinery installed which has eliminated a large number of work- | ers. | An automatic lathe has recently been installed which replaced 300 men, On this machine, work is pro- duced for three cents a piece. ‘This work previously cost the company | $1.12 a piece to produce. The auto- matic grinding machines have been turned around facing each other so that one man can operate two ma- | | chines. the laid-off workers’ (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE) Tom Mooney, in Open Letter to Governor Rolph, Scores Infamous Decision Denying Pardon | would far rather lead a normal life| ‘Says Rolph Failed Miserably With His Smoke- _ Sereen of Words to Befog the Real Issue of Jr., of California, expressing his opin- jon of the Governor’s decision in turning down his pardon application: California State Prison, San Quentin, Cal. April 23, 1932. (Via San Francisco.) “Governor James Rolph, Jr., Governors’ Convention, Richmond, Va. “I am taking the liberty of address- ing these remarks to you and your class, that you so faithfully represent. cent, you have conclusively estab- lished the fact that you are not only California’s governor, but also chair- man of the Executive Committee of California’s Dictatorship of the Cap- italist Class. “The mghty roar of protest which followed immediately on the heels of your decision should have by this time given you some idea of the scorn and contempt that will “By your decision in turning down} my pardon application, when the | whole world knows that I am inno- by countless millions all over the world for this class decision. “In your own statements, you gave not a single valid reason for keeping me in jail. You and your advisers | tried to befog the real issue of my | guilt or innicence behind a smoke | screen of words; you tried to hide your bias and prejudice as a repre- sentative of capital in dealing with a representative of labor by a veritable deluge of igelevant statements. “You failed miserably in this task. Any intelligent child can see clearly through this second frame-up, by which you seek to bolster up the first jone. Calling Tom Mooney names | doesn’t establish his guilt. The at- torneys who were your advisers know | very well that from a legal standpoint. there has never in history been a case so completely riddled with overwhelm~- ingly convineing refutation of the guilt of the ecoused aa has beep Diy the Innocence of Tom Mooney case. “Sixteen years ago a mighty giant, | swaggering American capitalism, | haughty, overpowering and brusque, | swept aside all in its path—includ- ing Mooney. Tom Mooney, then an obscure, unknown worker —rela tively speaking, an acorn—has to- | day grown to be a mighty oak, ad- mittedly too dangerous to be at lib- erty during this desperate economic _ crisis, because he symbolizes the | onward march of the revolutionary | workers toward a better civiliza- tion. “The greatest asset of the working class in that struggle is the crass stupidity and ignorance of your class | in dealing with the simplest problems! of the day. “Don’t think that I am particular- grateful to you for leaving me to after sixteen Laer} of | conferred upon me with the greatest and be with my family, friends and} comrades, like every normal human| being. But you have turned your | back on justice; you have shown your! , class spite and venom against the | workers; you have decreed that I die} in prison because you and your class | fear the effects of my release. | “You thaye continued in the role | of your predecessors in making of me a symbol of the cause of labor. I accept this high honor you have of humility. This service I will un- grudgingly render to my class, with the greatest of devotion, loyalty and fidelity, I give—gladly and willing- ly—my very lige to the cause of the toilers all over the world, regardless of race, color, creed or nationality. I will never cease in this holy strugglt until every last instrument used in this dastardly frame-up is completely liquidated and a class- less society will replace what now passes for civilization. (Signed) “TOM MOONEY.” ‘The letter was sent through the Tom fins Molder’s Defense Com~- ens in their back yard. The workers on piece work often make as low as 20 and 30 cents a day. Foster to Speak at Marine Forum To Lecture On Role of Red Unions, Sun. NEW YORK.—Wnm. Z. Foster, gen- eral secretary of the Trade Union May 8, at 8 p.m., on “The Role of the | Red Trade Unions.” The company is trying to stall of | tity League, will speak at the open| demands for | forum of the Marine Workers Indus- | relief by telling them to start gard-| tria1 Union, 140 Broad Street, Sunday, | { This will be one of the most im-| Workers Forum this year. Comrade Foster will deal with the role of the Red Unions and its relation to the struggles of the marine workers and the coming world marine workers congress in Hamburg. | portant lectures held at the Marine | lion unemployed workers and ruined farmers and their families in this country. The bankers and their gov- ernment callously sentence these workers and poor farmers to starva- tion, deny them unemployment re- lief and social insurance, but the bankers and their government are now embarking on a campaign to collect funds to finance the White Guards in their openly announced plans to join the Japanese impe- rialists in armed intervention against the Soviet Union. Using the pretext of “relief” for “war-wounded Russian officers” as a cloak for this financing of the White Guards, Cooper writes: “I recently received a letter from the American Ambassador in Paris stating that there are twenty- eight war-wounded Russian offi- cers, without country, friends, fam- fly for relatives, now living in the direst poverty at 14 Rue des Trois Champtiers These officers were our allies during the World War, and they should not be allowed to live and die like common dogs.” Millions of workers in the United States, including tens of thousarids of ex-servicemen, are forced by capi- talism to live “like common dogs”. Tens of thousands are forced to crawl “like common dogs” for a mea- ger hand-out in the breadlines. In many cities they are forced to give their labor without pay in “ex- change” for these miserable hand- outs. Thousands are dying “like common dogs” of starvation and malnutrition and its diseases. Hun- dreds are misguidedly committing suicide in an attempt to escape this existence “like common dogs”. And when the starving, destiute workers protest against these conditions they are clubbed and shot down “like common dogs”. Cooper, rich banker, opposes the payment of the cash bonus to Amer- ican war veterans who are now forced ta “live and die like common dogs” as their reward for fighting for Wall Street’s profits in the imperial- ist war, but is ready to finance the anti-Soviet activities of the Tsarist White Guards, “our former allies”. Communist Election Campaign in N. Y. Opens With A Bang The Communist election a campaign will get into full swing with the city nominating conference on May 22nd lat the Manhattan Lyceum, 66 East 4th Street. At this conference, dele- | gates will be elected to the National Nominating Convention of the Com~ munist Party in Chicago. An urgent call to shops, trade unions, unemployed councfls and all workers mass organizations to send delegates to the conference has been sent out by the Election Campaign Committee of New York. Besides electing delegates, to what ts certain to be the historic national nominating convention, the city conference will take steps to set up the broadest uited front of all workers in the elec- tion struggle for the basic life and death demands of the working class. A broad united front election cam- volving all | volving. all. sections of the New York working class, will be set up. The city conference will be fol- lowed by the State Nominating Con- vention at Schenectady, N. Y., on June 19th. Organizations are asked to elect delegates to both conventions at the same time. Arrangements are being made by the election campaign committee to provide the cheapest and most comfortable transportation both to Schenectady and Chicago. Organizations are obliged to provide between $8 and $10 for each dele- gate’s expenses to the state conven- tion. The sum necessary to be raised per delegate to the national conven- tion will be announced shortly in the press, since negotiations are now going on for the cheapest rates pos- sible. Don’t delay. Elect your dele~ (ates to the city and state convens paign committee, representing and in-| tlons. Begin raising funds at agco.